-- non-subscriber, please reply to sender and MMD --

I do not know if there are still many people interested in building
John Smith's organs and if so little contribution is worth it.  I have
the impression that I come to it a bit too late, but anyway I keep on
giving my impressions about this organ as the work progresses, for two
reasons: (1) Before beginning the work, I read all that I could find on
the subject and this helped me a lot; (2) Some of the points could be
useful for building any organ, I think.

A few ideas for John Smith's busker organ :

 - For the pipe stoppers J. Smith uses bamboo sticks, as they are light
and will keep those stoppers steady.  This is okay if the tops of pipes
are not visible, but if you need a fine appearance, here is a solution.

You can use wooden golf tees providing that you make a few
modifications so that they cannot be recognised: flatten the top,
change lightly the profile by reducing it with sand paper using a lathe
(or drilling machine).  Mine are 4 mm for the stick part.

 - This busker organ seems to be the minimum-size organ for an optimum
20-notes result; any smaller and the organ becomes a serinette and can
no more play bass pipes.  This is easy to understand (and everybody
mentions this in the Archives) -- air production is precious and air
tightness is the challenge.  So this is my permanent search while
building: to not waste air and keep the pressure!

Of course the best ideas come from John Smith himself, but I am sure
lots of you found your own tricks but neglected to inform us as you
felt there was too little interest.  You are wrong -- your ideas are
of great interest!

As we say in French: "Les petits ruisseaux font les grandes rivieres",
which translated could lead to something like "little streams make big
rivers", and, in fact, "many little leaks make big leaks!"  But anyway,
you'll understand, whichever sense you choose.

Let's think of the different opportunities of loosing air pressure.
Please, tell us what you think about those different points.

1. The valves -- It is difficult to do more than John Smith says,
isn't it?

2. The wood itself in the pressure box -- Brush varnish and varnish
again, as is often said on the subject.

3. Joints of the pressure box?

$. Leaking along the axle of the playing spool as it goes through the
pressure box.  Is it slight?  Probably not after the organ has run a
lot.  Why not fit a leather washer (ca. 4 mm) on the spool axle (6 mm)
and glue it inside the pressure box?

5. Greedy pipes if the air slot is too wide.  Do not dare to get an
impressive result on each pipe by widening the slot.  Let's follow
John's advice: 0.5 mm.

6. Quality of the paper airtightness on the tracker bar?

7. The bellows themselves -- No leaks through the cardboard where
it is glued inside; but in the front part of the bellows there are
triangles of naked leather.  I use liquid latex from the hobby store,
brushed on these surfaces and on the creases between cardboards.  Add
talcum powder before complete drying, as John says.

 - John suggests using 6 mm plastic tubing with aluminium tubes of 6 mm
outside diameter.  7 mm outside diameter would give a 6 mm internal
diameter thus providing a constant 6 mm tubing from tracker bar hole to
pipe.  Would it be a slight precaution?  This raises the cross-section
of flow through the metal tubing by 33 percent.  My brass tubing is
0.5 mm thick.  This 7 mm metal tube is easy to fit if the plastic tube
is lightly warmed on the flame.

 - Why not enlarge the window of the lid of busker organ?  The top can
be strengthened by using 6 mm plywood.  This is what I am doing so that
I can enjoy as much as possible the operation and fascination of
punched paper music rolls.  (See the separate essay: The Fascination
of the Tracker Bar.)

Jean Nimal
France